A short article about the Media Triumph of the Blue Moon Hotel in the Lower East Side, a five year art preservation and design project.
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Built from an 1879 tenement, the Blue Moon Hotel presents itself as a time capsule into New York City’s past. When artist and developer Randy Settenbrino purchased the tenement front at 100 Orchard Street in the early 2001, he decided to turn Blue Moon Hotel into a throwback to years gone by and transformed the five-story tenement into an eight-story stately hotel. The buildings earlier tenants had abandoned the building in the mid-1930s in response to new laws instituted by former New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, leaving behind personal effects and artifacts.
The Blue Moon Hotel strategically reincorporates architectural artifacts and building materials in the decorative finishes throughout the hotel; collages are made from personal effects from former tenement dwellers and the anonymous merchants and are lovingly displayed throughout the lobby. Settenbrino further amplified its history by subscribing to furnishing styles that are modern in function yet timeless in form, and room art by Rebecca Lepkoff, renowned for her photographs of the pre-World War II NYC. Today a renowned New York City boutique hotel, The Blue Moon has received a lot of press since it first opened. The Travel & Leisure section of Vanity Fair praised the originality of the Blue Moon Hotel for its tenement origins, chicness, and combination of period pieces and modern luxury.
A 2006 piece from the Toronto Star discussed how Blue Moon Hotel reincorporated original wainscoting, molding, and sheet metal tiles into the restoration. “Settenbrino may fancy himself a painter, but the Blue Moon is his bricks and mortar masterpiece.” Wrote Susan Pigg in the Toronto Star. The Blue Moon Hotel received several pieces from the New York Times’ discussing its development, artistic value, and one-of-a-kind experience. Based in a prime location in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, The Blue Moon Hotel allows its guests to enjoy the melting pot culture and cuisine that defines New York City, a fact praised by the New York Times’ Columnist John Freeman Gill, saying, “Forging the past vibrantly…Randy spent five years transforming the former Orchard Street tenement into one of Manhattan’s more captivating new small hotels.” Bloomberg’s famed Art and Architecture James Gardner interviewed Blue Moon Hotel’s artist and developer, Randy Settenbrino. After the interview, Gardner wrote “Settenbrino’s Blue Moon may be only one artifact among many in the ongoing and creative adaptation of the urban past, but it is conspicuous for the sensitivity and boldness with which it achieves an increasingly sought-after goal.”
In the piece, Settenbrino discussed his inspiration for the Blue Moon Hotel and the process of discovering many remnants from its history such as newspapers, calling cards, and 1920s sheet music. Many periodicals have given accolades to the Blue Moon Hotel in recent years. CitySearch named Blue Moon Hotel New York’s Best Boutique Hotel, and the National Geographic Traveler chose the Blue Moon as one of the Top 150 Hotels to visit in the Western Hemisphere in 2008. To learn more about the Blue Moon Hotel and read its press clippings, visit www.bluemoon-nyc.com.
Contact Info:
Name: Randy Settenbrino
Email: Send Email
Organization: Blue Moon Hotel Ltd
Address: 100 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002, United States
Phone: +1-646-787-5503
Website: http://www.bluemoon-nyc.com/
Source: PressCable
Release ID: 89059987
